Ling Huan and Yin Luoling walked on the road back home.
Zeng Ge had said that learning these things still required some preparation, so he told Ling Huan to come back in a few days, preferably after three or four days.
Zeng Ge was truly carefree, actually feeling at ease handing over his family heirloom just like that.
Despite only having a verbal promise, he wasn’t at all worried that Ling Huan would run off with it.
He really was quite bold.
Ling Huan’s fingertips rubbed the three-inch-tall white jade tower in his palm, the outer layer of which was encased in copper.
However, the copper shell had been eroded by time and was peeling off in many places, revealing the white jade inside.
Yet, that white jade did not look like high-quality jade either; when held up to the light, its color was dim, it was full of impurities, and there were many cracks.
Nevertheless, the craftsmanship of this tower was indeed exquisite.
While the outer copper shell was crudely made, the inside was entirely different.
The carvings on the nine-story tower body were lifelike, and the upturned eaves of the nine levels were interconnected with extreme delicacy.
It was a world of difference compared to the crude exterior.
Although he didn’t really want to accept it, since the man had forced it upon him, there was nothing he could do.
But more than the tower, Ling Huan was more concerned about Yin Luoling.
Yin Luoling was walking side by side with him, but her gaze was fixed dead set on the tower in his hand.
Although she was deliberately disguising her gaze, Ling Huan could still feel that Yin Luoling seemed very interested in this tower.
Could it be that she was very interested in this kind of handicraft?
“Do you want this?”
Ling Huan held the tip of the tower and dangled it in front of Yin Luoling’s eyes.
“No.”
Yin Luoling’s answer was curt and firm.
But Ling Huan was no fool.
At this moment, Yin Luoling’s eyes were practically welded to it.
How did this look like she “didn’t want” it?
Was she being tsundere?
Or was she still bothered by the things he had done before?
Perhaps it was both.
Should he just give it to her?
Anyway, this tower was of no use to him.
When the time came, he could just gloss it over with an excuse like he was careless and afraid of losing it, so he was letting his meticulous sister keep it for him.
Come to think of it, where was he going to get a second set of ultimate techniques?
Should he go to Flowing Cloud Pavilion to see if there were any books for sale regarding ultimate techniques?
But…
The easier something is to get, the less it is cherished.
Why not use this tower to clear up the misunderstanding?
That’s it!
Although the method was a bit despicable, it was for the sake of eliminating the rift between siblings!
Wasn’t this the perfect opportunity to get Yin Luoling to listen to his explanation!
Heh heh~
A brilliant idea surfaced in Ling Huan’s heart.
While Ling Huan was immersed in his brilliant idea, he completely failed to notice that Yin Luoling, who was originally walking side by side with him, had gradually slowed her pace, eventually falling one or two steps behind him.
Yin Luoling’s eyes narrowed slightly, and her fists involuntarily clenched.
Should she just kill him right here?
…
That’s right…?
What had she been hesitating for all this time…?
She hadn’t returned to the time before her parents were murdered.
Logically speaking, the goal of this life should be to rapidly increase her strength and return to the Immortal Realm.
Before that old bastard mastered the Laws of Time, she would master them first, then trigger a siege, thereby traveling through time again to return to the days before her parents were killed and save them.
If her parents didn’t die, then Ling Huan’s parents would also come to visit them.
At that time, she could use the excuse of wanting to learn business to follow Ling Huan’s parents again.
In the end, she could still return to the Ling Estate and finish off this beast, Ling Huan.
Furthermore, she would have an extra year to prepare, and she could directly implement the puppet plan then.
That way, everyone she cared about would be saved.
Having figured out the key to this problem, Yin Luoling had a sudden epiphany.
Since she could start over again anyway, why care?
Wouldn’t it be better to grow at the fastest possible speed?
In her previous life, she also lived in hiding; what was the harm in doing it once more in this life?
It would simply be another period of suffering.
But as long as one more period of suffering could save everyone, then necessary sacrifices were acceptable, right?
Besides, they wouldn’t remember anything.
Even if Ling Huan was different in this life, so what?
Why was she wasting her efforts trying to find evidence to prove whether Ling Huan was bad or not?
She should just take the tower, rapidly increase her strength, and then perform another time reversal.
How did she suddenly become so stupid and naive?
Yin Luoling suddenly realized this problem.
Time reversal was actually forcing one’s consciousness directly onto one’s past self at a certain point in time.
What about the original self?
What about the consciousness of the self at this point in time?
She hadn’t collapsed yet, hadn’t developed cognitive impairment, hadn’t become lost, and hadn’t experienced a split personality.
Did that mean her past consciousness had been crushed by her future self?
No, if that were the case, she definitely wouldn’t have done so many things that wasted time, and she wouldn’t have exhausted her efforts trying to prove that Ling Huan was a bad person, just like in her past life.
Prove…?
To whom was she proving it?
Why did she want to prove it?
It seemed like she wanted to convince someone…
Suddenly, Yin Luoling realized it.
It wasn’t that her consciousness had traveled back to the past, but rather that her future memories had been sent back into her current brain.
Otherwise, if two consciousnesses occupied the same body, a struggle for control would inevitably occur.
Even the physical puppets of cultivators couldn’t accommodate two consciousnesses, let alone her previous mortal coil.
Then the most likely answer was… her future self had truly perished, and she had only sent her future memories back to her current mind.
Perhaps it wasn’t that her past life’s mental cultivation technique had no effect; it was precisely because the technique was engraved in her mind that it worked.
That’s why her past self didn’t collapse in the front courtyard of the Ling Estate, and why she didn’t experience cognitive blurring and obstacles.
She had always thought she had come back from the future, but she actually hadn’t.
She just knew the things of the future.
Knowing the future encounters and understanding the future self’s feelings allowed this segment of future memory to dominate her consciousness.
But she… hadn’t identified with it.
The reason she wasn’t confused was precisely because the technique protected her tempered Dao Heart, allowing that Dao Heart to be sent back to her current self in the form of memory.
Therefore, she wasn’t confused or insane.
Steadying her mind, a wave of emotion surged in Yin Luoling’s heart, but it was quickly suppressed.
She began to become steady, cool, and heartless.
The most important thing now was the tower.
What was she doing dallying like this?
Yin Luoling’s gaze became increasingly cold, and she slowly placed her hand on the sword at her waist.
With just one strike, in less than a breath’s time, she could pierce through Ling Huan’s chest and puncture his heart.
At that time, couldn’t she just blame it on the Flowing Cloud Pavilion?
At worst, blaming it on bandits would also be fine.
After all, hadn’t that guy named Lin Chuan wanted to kill her before?
Then she could deceive Jiang Yue and just convince her.
Maybe as soon as Ling Huan died, his demonic technique would be dispelled?
Thinking of this, Yin Luoling’s fingers slowly pushed the sword at her waist out of its scabbard by three inches.
“You really don’t want it?”
Ling Huan suddenly turned around, narrowing his eyes, the corners of his mouth curling up high.
Moreover, Yin Luoling was all too familiar with this smile of Ling Huan’s.
Whenever he was about to do something disgusting and beastly, he would show this kind of wicked smile.
She wasn’t in a hurry.
She would wait until Ling Huan was smiling most triumphantly and his vigilance was at its lowest to slit his throat with one stroke.
“I don’t.”
Yin Luoling’s answer was still categorical.
“That’s a pity. I originally wanted to give it to you. Then I’ll just throw it away.”
Ling Huan sighed secretly at the pity, then his right hand suddenly threw something!
Following a parabolic arc, something was tossed out and quickly vanished into the bushes beside the path.
Ling Huan thought Yin Luoling would frantically go looking for it, but she didn’t react the way he expected.
On the contrary, she was extremely calm.
Yin Luoling sneered in her heart.
Ling Huan really took her for some kind of fool, thinking she couldn’t see?
What he threw from his hand wasn’t the tower at all, but a pebble.
Yin Luoling had long known Ling Huan’s personality.
The more she liked something, the more Ling Huan didn’t want her to have it, even if what she wanted was just a worthless wooden stick to him.
Ling Huan just wanted to toy with her.
Her current hesitation was merely her weak self wavering, believing in a beast.
Yin Luoling understood that her past self’s memories and emotions were only temporarily dominated and suppressed by the future memories.
Knowing a thing, understanding a thing, and identifying with a thing are three different reactions a person can have.
Her past self knew why her future self wanted to kill Ling Huan so much, and she understood why she was doing it.
When accepting those memories, the future and the present remained unified.
But later, Ling Huan’s behavior did not match the future memories.
Her current self wavered and did not identify with the option of killing Ling Huan directly.
That was why she constantly wanted to prove it, letting this thought of proving Ling Huan was a bad person—this obsession—dominate all her actions until now.
The cultivation technique kept her self-awareness clear, but it did not unify the two different states of mind.
She finally understood.
Yin Luoling finally understood why she had always felt a sense of discord for so long.
Yin Luoling lowered her hand.
If she killed Ling Huan at this moment, she would probably suffer from a personality split.
Self-identification.
Yin Luoling hadn’t expected that self-identification would be such a troublesome thing.
It was just like wanting to eat candy as a child, but only wanting to drink alcohol when grown up.
Of course… there was another possibility… that this kind, naive little girl knew and understood my future self and was willing to let these memories take the lead.
That might be why cognitive impairment and personality splits didn’t occur; perhaps that’s why she now realized she hadn’t traveled through time.
People often ask what your current self would say to your past self.
But rarely does anyone listen to what the past self would say to the current self.
Fine, then I will continue to prove it.
I’ll prove it to you, to show you how filthy and beastly the heart of this Ling Huan—whom you think is different—actually is.
No matter how well he hides it, I will expose it to you, no matter how hard it is, no matter…
“It seems I’ve been seen through by you. How about this? If you want the tower, come to my room tonight.”
Ling Huan suddenly spoke, interrupting Yin Luoling’s internal dialogue.
…?
“Your… room?”
Yin Luoling somewhat doubted her own ears.
“That’s right. Don’t you want the tower? Do you really think you can get this tower without paying anything?”
Ling Huan’s smile became perverted.
He narrowed his eyes, looking Yin Luoling’s body up and down.
That unshielded, scrutinizing gaze that wished it could strip her bare was displayed so openly.
It seemed that she would soon be able to prove it and maintain her self-unity.
“Alright, thank you, Brother.”
Yin Luoling smiled lightly.
It seemed that tonight, she would not only be able to get the tower but also immediately unify her self.
Two birds with one stone.
As for Ling Huan, he was smiling, but in reality, he was also helpless.
As luck would have it, the system that had been quiet and playing dead suddenly popped up with a mission.
[Mission in progress!]
[Content: Yin Luoling covets the new treasure you obtained!
Within today, humiliate Yin Luoling in your own room!
Let her know what a terrible mistake it is to provoke you!
Show her your beastly way completely!
[In your room, give full play to your strengths!]
[Refusal Penalty: None]
[Rewards: One Top-tier Secret Technique, Divine Jade Body-Tempering Pill, eighteen bottles of Black Tortoise Body-Refining Liquid, one drop of Dragon Origin Essence, eighteen bottles of God-grade Spirit-Gathering Pills, 15,000 Spirit Stones, one copy of Scent-Based Insight into a Woman’s Heart, one Divine Soaring Vessel.]
From forceful penalties to giving “soft benefits,” the system seemed to finally understand that he, a tough guy, could not be knocked down or threatened.
Only by corrupting his heart and letting bad social influences blow in to corrupt him from the inside was the best choice.
Now, such generous rewards made Ling Huan’s heart tremble.
Looking at the dense descriptions of the items, Ling Huan was incredibly tempted.
They were all the things he needed most at the moment!
Especially that book, Scent-Based Insight into a Woman’s Heart, which was the best of the best.
It was actually a manual for picking up girls, and it even taught how to strengthen the body to remain undefeated after a hundred battles!
Hiss…
This corrupt atmosphere… was a bit terrifying.
However!
He, Ling Huan, was no coward either.
He had already thought of how to leech such generous rewards from the system for free.
Heh heh heh heh heh heh heh heh!
Tonight, he was going to show the system what it meant to neither bully Yin Luoling nor fail to leech the system’s stuff!
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